Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A CERTAIN LADY, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A CERTAIN LADY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They tore her scarlet gown
Last Line: "in your moral modern town!"
Subject(s): Death; Kisses; Life; Love; Peace; Dead, The


They tore her scarlet gown.
"What's in a kiss?" she said --
But they hunted her up and they hunted her down
From end to end of their moral town,
Till they left her there for dead.

But the bleeding throat of her cry
Was heard in another place;
And those who are older than earth or sky --
The austere ones of eternity . . .
They knew her of their race.

"What's this?" they said. "For a kiss?" said they;
And they took the red from the dawn,
And they took the dance from the salt-sea spray,
And they took the purple out of the day,
And the yellow out of the corn.

"Give her life, give her love, give her peace," they said.
"Give her back her scarlet gown;
Or with ashes of death upon every head
Dead you shall skip to the tune of the dead
In your moral modern town!"





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